President Joe Biden aimed to resurrect his stalled Build Back Better agenda Tuesday during a State of the Union address that highlighted his domestic economic priorities and what he touted as the dawn of an infrastructure decade.
In his first State of the Union speech, Biden said the country is already seeing the benefits of last year’s passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and American Rescue Plan Act.
Bloomberg
He pushed for a laundry list of items featured in his $2 trillion Build Back Better bill, which stalled last year amid opposition from West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin that was based in part on rising inflation.
For municipal bond lobbyists, the fate of the Build Back Better agenda is important as they hope it will serve as a vehicle to insert their priorities, including the restoration of tax-exempt advance refunding.
The speech came as Biden faces anemic 41% approval ratings, inflation rates that have reached a 40-year high, and midterm elections that could usher in a Republican majority.
Biden said managing inflation is his “top priority.”
Biden began his speech by highlighting the country’s support for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion before moving onto the economy, where he highlighted last year’s stimulus and infrastructure packages.
“Few pieces of legislation have done more in a critical moment in our history to lift us out of crisis,” Biden said of the ARPA, which featured $350 billion in state and local funding. He also said he would ask the Justice Department to establish a task force to investigate fraudulent use of pandemic funds.
Biden said the BIL will usher in an “infrastructure decade.” The BIL has already led to 4,000 new projects, he said, and announced that repairs would begin this year on more than 65,000 miles of highway and 1,500 bridges.
“We’ll create good jobs for millions of Americans, modernizing roads, airports, ports and waterways all across America,” he said. “And we’ll do it all to withstand the devastating effects of the climate crisis and promote environmental justice.”
The BIL will fund ambitious plans to replace all lead pipes, provide internet access to rural areas and build a national network of electric vehicle charging stations, he said.
Municipal issuer associations praised the president’s emphasis on infrastructure and pandemic relief.
“As the President said, our infrastructure is currently ranked 13th in the world, but it should be ranked number 1,” said Patrick Jones, Executive Director and CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association in a statement. “To make America’s infrastructure the envy of the world again, we need a multi-level approach that includes robust federal funding as well as toll financing at the state and local level that advances the user payment principle, sustainability, and equity.”
The National League of Cities highlighted the impact of the ARPA and BIL.
“President Biden recognized the historic impact of these laws and laid the groundwork to continue to strengthen our economy,” said NLC Executive Director Clarence E. Anthony in a statement. “He shared our enthusiasm to strengthen and rebuild the infrastructure that keeps Americans and our economy moving.”
In the Republican response to Biden’s address, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said country was moving backward under the Biden Administration.
“We are now one year into his presidency and instead of moving America forward, it feels like President Biden and his party have sent us back in time, to the late ’70s and early ’80s, when runaway inflation was hammering families, a violent crime wave was crashing our cities and the Soviet Army was trying to redraw the world map,” Reynolds said.